This year's first dedicated tourist train that takes tourists on a 12-day journey around northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region departed from railway station in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, on Wednesday night.
The train, named "Tianshan", will carry a total of 362 tourists from across the country to visit popular attractions in Urumqi and the classical and spectacular scenes in northern and southern Xinjiang.
The interior design of the train also embellishes the stylish and trendy Xinjiang features.
Bus services are also provided to take tourists to wherever train services are not available.
"This is my first time here in Xinjiang. I've been expecting this trip for over two years. Now, the train "Tianshan" can take us to popular attractions across the northern and southern parts of Xinjiang. It's really convenient. I am looking forward to this trip," said Ren Feng, a tourist from Suzhou City in east China's Jiangsu Province.
"By combining the diverse elements of Xinjiang such as mountains, lakes, deserts, pastures, ancient villages, and our local culture, we enable tourists to fully appreciate the magnificent natural scenery and unique local customs of Xinjiang in a single trip," said Zhang Keli, deputy general manager of Xinjiang Railway Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd.
The "Tianshan" tourist train will run twice every month from May to September, covering Xinjiang's prime tourist season.
"Tianshan" train takes tourists on exhilarating journey across Xinjiang
The 23rd "Chinese Bridge" -- a Chinese language proficiency competition for foreign college students -- was held in the Capitol Hill Campus of the University of Liberia in Monrovia, capital of Liberia, last Friday.
Nearly 300 people, including the finalists participating in the competition, Chinese Ambassador to Liberia Yin Chengwu, officials from the Liberian government, representatives from local Chinese-funded companies and institutions and students and teachers from the Confucius Institute at the University of Liberia, were present at this event.
The Liberia division finals of this year's "Chinese Bridge" competition covered speech, Q and A sessions over Chinese culture and a talent show.
In the competition, the finalists staged performances such as Wushu (martial arts), traditional Chinese opera, classical Chinese dance and Chinese poetry recitation to showcase their gasp of Chinese culture.
The contest concluded with a contestant dubbed "Ming Juan" being declared the winner. The winner will later represent the country to compete at the global contest in China.
Since its inception in 2002, the Chinese Bridge program has seen the participation of more than 1.5 million young people from more than 160 countries in the overseas preliminaries, and more than 7,000 outstanding contestants have been invited to China to participate in the global finals. The competition has become a popular international event among Chinese language learners worldwide.
University of Liberia hosts 23rd Chinese Proficiency Competition finals
